History Main / NamedAfterTheirPlanet

* Marvel tends to avert this except with smaller races like the Poppupians (from the planet Poppup), although in a later retcon the already named Skrulls were said to have originalted from a planet called Skrullos - which however was not the planet on which the Skrull emperor or empress lived.

* in ''{{Futurama}}'', members of the native population of Earth are referred to as "Earthicans".

* The only sentient species we know of, the human race, has its English name from the Latin "humanus" by way of French. The ultimate origin is thought to be Proto-Indo-European dhǵhem- which means "earth". Furthermore, in biblical Hebrew, the word for "man," Adam, comes from the word for "earth," Adama.

* Initially played straight but then averted in the '{{'K-PAX}}'' novels - prot refers to himself as a [=K-PAX=]ian, but later clarifies that his species are called "dremers" and referes to several other creatures from his planet as [=K-PAX=]ians too.

* Common in ''Franchise/StarTrek''. The vast majority of the species are named after their homeworld. They do have exceptions, like the Humans (Earth), Klingons (Qo'nos), Borg (homeworld unknown as no origin story was ever told for them)...

** Actually Qo'nos is supposed to literally translate to "Klingon" so..

* Initially played straight but then averted in the ''KPAX'' novels - prot refers to himself as a [=K-PAX=]ian, but later clarifies that his species are called dremers and referes to several other creatures as [=K-PAX=]ians too.

Also applies to humans on occasion, if a work refers to humans as Terrans, our homeworld as Terra, or both.

** Volus appear to use this when referring to other species. Th one most often heard Earth-Clan for humans; the volus that lost his credit chit in the second game refers to quarians as clanless, and Blasto's superior refers to him as Kahje-Clan.

* Every alien race from ''{{Babylon 5}}''.
** Well, the major ones (Minbari/Minbar, Centauri/Centauri Prime, Narn/Narn Homeworld or Narn). The League worlds are often exceptions. The Drazi are from Zhabar, the Pak'ma'ra from Melat, the Hurr from Androma, the Llort from Vartas, the Gaim from N'chak'fah, the Hyach from Shri-shraba, the Onteen from Aicha, the Abbai from Ssumssha, the Yolu from Pa'ri, etc. Then again, we have Brakos for the Brakiri, Vreetan for the Vree and Gromahk for the Grome.
** According to WordOfGod, "Centauri" is a misnomer of sorts - the first human/Centauri contact occurred in the Alpha Centauri system, and the humans assumed the Centauri home planet was in that area. It wasn't, but the term stuck in the English language.
** [[AbusivePrecursors The Shadows]] come from Z'ha'dum, although their true name is unknown. They just like everybody calling them "Shadows".

* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', where the trolls' planet is called Alternia. Though, when you translate the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrolls Daedric]]-turned-180-degrees that [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003891 the name is written in]], you get "Trollplanet".

** Though one of the Saiyans is named Vegeta (Jr.)... Because his father, the King of Saiyans, conquered the whole planet and named it after himself.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', we're "Earthicans." There are also Decapodians (Decapod 10), Amphibiosans (Amphibios 9), Neptunians, Omicronians (Omicron Persei 8), Osirians (Osiris 4), Martians, Amazonians (Amazonia) and Cygnoids (Cygnos 5). The Nibblonians are a notable exception, originating on the Planet Eternium.

** The species from planet Vort are referred to as Vorts. ([[BeamMeUpScotty Not Vortians]].) {{Averted}} with the creatures from Blorch, [[DescriptivelyNamedSpecies which are called]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Slaughtering Rat People]].

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', we're "Earthicans." There are also Decapodians (Decapod 10), Amphibiosans (Amphibios 9), Neptunians, Omicronians (Omicron Persei 8), Osirians (Osiris 4), Martians, Amazonians (Amazonia) and Cygnoids (Cygnos 5). The Nibblonians are a notable exception, originating on the Planet Eternium.

* In ''InvaderZim'', the Irkens are from Irk. Amusingly, Zim follows a version of the trope himself: before landing on Earth he referred to its inhabitants as "Earthenoids," and referred to the extinct Martians as "Marsoids."

* The ''{{Thundercats}}'' were the elite warriors/nobility of the Thunderian people on their home planet of, surprise, surprise, Thundera. It doesn't stop there; the word "thunder" shows up ''a lot'' when stuff regarding that species gets involved. Ah, cartoons of TheEighties...

* An extreme version was used in ''SouthPark'', where not only were the inhabitants of an alien planet called Marklars, but ''all'' [[{{Smurfing}} marklars were replaced with the marklar "marklar"]].
* Neosapiens in ''{{Exosquad}}'' always refer to ''homo sapiens sapiens'' as "Terrans." This works because the Neosapiens were created on Mars and regard it as their homeworld, and it is simpler than using the full species name. "Human" refers to both species.
* [[{{Transformers}} Cybertronians]] are from the planet Cybertron.

* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' averts this most of the time. The [[FishPeople Boron]] homeworld is Nishala, and the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]] homeworld is Ianamus Zura. The [[HumansByAnyOtherName Argon]] capital is Argon Prime, but that's a case of the planet being named after the faction rather than the other way around: the Argon are [[LostColony displaced humans]] from Earth who renamed Sonra-4 after their leader Nathan R. Gunne. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy]] are from the planet Hodie according to their legends (some aren't sure if it exists, the others think it suffered a nuclear war). The [[PlanetTerra Terran]] homeworld is Earth, [[CaptainObvious obviously]]. The [[TheEmpire Paranid]] play the trope straight: their homeworld is Paranid Prime. Nobody knows the name of the Kha'ak homeworld, and the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Xenon]] homeworld is technically Earth since they're an entire race of [[AIIsACrapshoot insane terraforming drones]] first built by the Terrans back in the 22nd century.

* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' averts this most of the time. The [[FishPeople Boron]] homeworld is Nishala, and the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]] homeworld is Ianamus Zura. The [[HumansByAnyOtherName Argon]] capital is Argon Prime, but that's a case of the planet being named after the faction rather than the other way around: the Argon are [[LostColony displaced humans]] from Earth who renamed Sonra-4 after their leader Nathan R. Gunne. The [[PlanetTerra Terran]] homeworld is Earth, [[CaptainObvious obviously]]. The [[TheEmpire Paranid]] play the trope straight: their homeworld is Paranid Prime. Nobody knows the name of the Kha'ak homeworld, and the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Xenon]] homeworld is technically Earth since they're an entire race of [[AIIsACrapshoot insane terraforming drones]] first built by the Terrans back in the 22nd century. %% This troper does not have information on the Split.

* Notably consistent in EEDocSmith's ''{{Lensman}}'' series. Earth is always referred to as "Tellus" and humans as "Tellurians" in just the same way that all of the other species are named after their planets of origin.

* Averted in ''MassEffect'': here are the known races and their homeworlds: [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]] - Thessia, [[HeavyWorlder elcor]] - Dekuuna, [[StarfishAliens hanar]] - Kahje, [[ExtraEyes batarians]] - Khar'shan, [[SpaceRomans turians]] - Palaven, [[TheReptilians drell]] - Rakhana, quarians - Rannoch, [[BeePeople rachni]] - Suen, [[TheGreys salarian]] - Sur'Kesh, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] - Tuchanka, [[ProudMerchantRace volus]] - Irune, raloi (mentioned in a news report) - Turvess, yahg - Parnack. All species names are notably uncapitalized too.

* Averted in ''SwordOfTheStars''. The [[SapientCetaceans Liir]] (their name means "Choir") come from the [[SingleBiomePlanet water world]] of Muur, the [[TheReptilians Tarka]] come from Kao'Kona ("Fortress of the Gods"), and the [[InsectoidAliens Hivers]] hail from Tcho'to'pre. The [[PlanetLooters Zuul]] are an artificial species with no known homeworld, although it's assumed they were deployed as bioweapons on Iridia 5 (which is the human name for the planet; the Zuul have no name for it). The [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Morrigi]] homeworld is unknown. It's possible it was destroyed in their war with the [[spoiler:Suul'ka]].

* Subject of a gag in ''TenchiMuyo'': When Tenchi first meets Sasami, he immediately assumes that she's come from a planet called Sasami. Why he jumps to this conclusion is a bit of a headscratcher, though to be fair he was having kind of a bad day and probably wasn't thinking straight.

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* KryptoTheSuperdog is named after his home planet. It'd be like naming your dog Eartho. The entire Kryptonian race also falls under this trope.

* In the ''SectorGeneral'' books, everyone calls his race "human" and his homeworld "Earth" when run through the translator. Every race is given a four-letter code that describes their environment and requirements. Generally, the other species are named after their world but humans are just called "Earth-humans" suggesting that either HumansAreSpecial, or they're just unimaginative.

* [[IainMBanks Iain M. Banks']] TheCulture are an exception, being formed around Orbital habitats (think {{Halo}}, {{Ringworld}}, {{Dyson Sphere}}s) and very large spacecraft.

* In {{Anne McCaffrey}}'s ''Freedom'' series, the alien overlords are called the Catteni, and they come from the planet Catten. One of the characters lampshades this when they discover the capital of the planet is called Cattena.

** Well, the major ones (Minbari/Minbar, Centauri/Centauri Prime, Narn/Narn Homeworld or Narn). The League worlds are often exceptions. The Drazi are from Zhabar, the Pak'ma'ra from Melat, the Hurr from Androma, the Llort from Vartas, the Gaim from N'chak'fah, the Hyach from Shri-shraba, the Onteen from Aicha, the Abbai from Ssumssha, the Yolu from Pa'ri, etc. Then again, we have Brakos for the Brakiri, Vreetan for the Vree and Gromahk for the Grome.

* ''{{Halo}}'' mostly averts this, with only the Sangheili (Elites) having a similarly named homeworld, Sanghelios.

* ''MasterOfOrion'' allows you to name your homeworld, although it still offers the default name. The only race that fits this trope are the [[{{Cyborg}} Meklar]], whose homeworld is Meklon, the Gnolam, hailing from Gnol, and the [[FishPeople Trilarians]] of Trilar. The other races have noticeably different homeworld names from their race name. Examples include the [[BeePeople Klackon]] from Kholdan, the [[LizardFolk Sakkra]] from [[SssssnakeTalk Sssla]], the [[EverythingIsWorseWithBears Bulrathi]] from Ursa, the [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Darlok]] from Nazin, the [[LadyLand Elerians]] from Draconis, and, of course, the humans from Sol.

** Also PlayedWith--Amy, for example, has been called a Martian. She's a human who was born on Mars. It's the ''Native'' Martians who are a separate species.

** The species from planet Vort are referred to as Vorts. ([[BeamMeUpScotty Not Vortians]].) {{Averted}} with the creatures from Blorch, [[DescriptivelyNamedSpecies which are called]] [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Slaughtering Rat People]].
* The ''{{Thundercats}}'' were the elite warriors/nobility of the Thunderian people on their home planet of, surprise, surprise, Thundera. It doesn't stop there; the word "thunder" shows up ''a lot'' when stuff regarding that species gets involved. Ah, cartoons of TheEighties...

* An extreme version was used in ''{{South Park}}'', where not only were the inhabitants of an alien planet called Marklars, but ''all'' [[{{Smurfing}} marklars were replaced with the marklar "marklar"]].

* The only sentient species we know of, the human race, has its English name from the Latin "humanus" by way of French. The ultimate origin is thought to be Proto-Indo-European dhǵhem- which means "earth". Furthermore, in biblical Hebrew, the word for "man," Adam, comes from the word for "earth," Adama.
** Please note, however, that in both cases, that's "earth" with a lower-case "e," i.e. soil. In the Hebrew instance, it's a transparent reference to the [[TheBible Biblical]] story of God creating the first man (Adam) out of clay.

* Common in ''StarTrek''. The vast majority of the species are named after their homeworld. They do have exceptions, like the Humans (Earth), Klingons (Qo'nos), Borg (homeworld unknown as no origin story was ever told for them)...

* Notably consistent in EEDocSmith's ''{{Lensman}}'' series: earth is always referred to as "Tellus" and humans as "Tellurians" in just the same way that all of the other species are named after their planets of origin.

[[folder:Comics]]

* As a parody, a holo-simulator from ''GunnerkriggCourt'' features Jupiter Moon Martians--naturally enough, they're natives of Mars who immigrated to Jupiter's moon, Ganymede.

* In the ''SectorGeneral'' books, everyone calls his race "human" and his homeworld "Earth" when run through the translator. Every race is given a four-letter code that describes their enviroment and requirements. Generally, the other species are named after their world but humans are just called "Earth-humans" suggesting that either HumansAreSpecial, or they're just unimaginative.

** According to WordOfGod, "Centauri" is a misnomer of sorts - the first human/Centauri contact occured in the Alpha Centauri system, and the humans assumed the Centauri home planet was in that area. It wasn't, but the term stuck in the English language.

* Averted in ''MassEffect'' where none of the species such as salarian, turian, krogan or batarian has a home planet with the same name, making it also slightly curious just what they were named after, seeing that they all have the postposition -n in their names.
** The idea is that their species developed names just like we did - "human" ends in the -n suffix too. All species names are notably uncapitalized too.
** Played straight by volus, whose homeworld is named Vol. They will also call humans "Earth-clan" and quarians "star-clan" or "[[FantasticSlurs clanless]]", as the latter are spacefaring gypsies.
*** The volus homeworld is actually 'Irune'. No explaination is given for why they call every other species after their homeworld or lack thereof.
*** Probably because it's polite among them to recognise people belonging to clans, but lacking more accurate information about the political system a particular human might belong to, they generalize them as Earth-clan.
*** For reference, here are the known races and their homeworlds: [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]] - Thessia, [[HeavyWorlder elcor]] - Dekuuna, [[StarfishAliens hanar]] - Kahje, [[ExtraEyes batarians]] - Khar'shan, turians - Palaven, [[TheReptilians drell]] - Rakhana, quarians - Rannoch, [[BeePeople rachni]] - Suen, [[TheGreys salarian]] - Sur'Kesh, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] - Tuchanka, raloi (mentioned in a news report) - Turvess, yahg - Parnack.

* The Draenei in ''{{Warcraft}}'' come from Draenor... but so do the orcs, ogres and a few other sentient species, none of which were named after their world. Further averted later when it turns out that Draenei come from ''another'' planet, Argus, and used to be called Eredar. They fled to the orcs' world and named it Draenor, or "Exile's Refuge" in their language, and apparently their new neighbours hadn't thought of how to call their world yet. Moreover, the inhabitants of Azeroth and K'aresh are not called after their world either.

** Played straight by volus, whose homeworld is named Vol. They will also call humans "Earth-clan" and quarians "clanless", as the latter are spacefaring gypsies.

*** Probably because it's polite among them to recognise people belonging to clans (that bit about quarians is used as a straightforward insult), but lacking more accurate information about the political system a particular human might belong to, they generalize them as Earth-clan.